LONDON — European heads of government meeting in the French city of Nice this week will try to thrash out a plan to revive last month's failed climate change talks, the Independent on Sunday newspaper said.
If EU leaders secure a deal among themselves, British Prime Minister Tony Blair will tackle the issue with President Clinton during his farewell visit to the United Kingdom and Ireland Dec. 12-14, the paper said.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed senior British minister as saying: "It's very sensitive, but we think we can get it back on track."
Last month's conference in The Hague failed to secure a global treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. European and other countries blamed the United States for not moving far enough to curb its output.
Washington wanted some of the carbon dioxide absorbed by its forests to be set against its emissions reduction target, but the European Union rejected the proposal.
Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said on Friday that Clinton approached the union to propose a quick restart to talks, saying he believed negotiations missed agreement only narrowly.
Clinton is keen to reach a deal before the end of his presidency in January, the paper said, citing unnamed EU sources.
Through his environment envoy Frank Loy, Clinton has proposed a conference at ministerial level before Christmas, the German newspaper said. The Hague talks were supposed to clear up the details before the final implementation and ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 framework treaty which called for major industrial nations to curb greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.